10-inch WORMS found in North Korean soldier who fled Kim's regime

The bizarre discovery was made after the defector drove across the DMZ while bullets rained down around him.

South Korean paramedics rushed him to hospital after he made it into the country, but were stunned by what they found.

Surgeons said the man in his 20s was riddled with parasites – including a 27cm worm – prompting many experts to debate how they got into his body.

**WARNING: Graphic image of the worm below**

GETTY

RIDDLED: Parasites were found in the soldiers stomach

“We are struggling with treatment as we found a large number of parasites in the soldier’s stomach”

Dr Lee Guk-jong

At a briefing, lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong displayed photos showing dozens of flesh-coloured parasites removed from the wounded soldier's guts during a series of surgeries to save his life.

Lee said: "In my over 20 year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook."

The parasites – along with kernels of corn in his stomach – confirm the awful food and hygiene conditions for ordinary North Koreans living under Kim's brutal regime.

The parasites may be a sign desperate North Korea is using human faeces as fertilizer.

SBS NEWS

YUCK: Lee Cook-jong shows a worm inside a North Korean soldier's gut

The soldier was flown by helicopter to hospital after his dramatic escape to South Korea in a hail of bullets fired by North Korean soldiers.

He is believed to be an army staff sergeant in his mid-20s who was stationed in the Joint Security Area in the United Nations truce village of Panmunjom.

He was shot in his buttocks, armpit, back shoulder and knee among other wounds, according to the hospital where the soldier is being treated.

North Korea has not commented on the defection.

Inside North Korea: The pictures Kim Jong-un doesn't want you to see

Since 2008, photographer Eric Lafforgue ventured to North Korea six times. Thanks to digital memory cards, he was able to save photos that was forbidden to take inside the segregated state

1 / 62

Eric Lafforgue/Exclusivepix Medi

Taking pictures in the DMZ is easy, but if you come too close to the soldiers, they stop you

Dr Lee Guk-jong said: “We are struggling with treatment as we found a large number of parasites in the soldier’s stomach, invading and eating into wounded areas.

“We have also discovered a parasite never seen in Koreans before. It is making the situation worse and causing tremendous complications.”

It is widely believed the soldier contracted the species before he was shot, according to the area Biomedical Review.

The worms can enter humans in filthy areas and can lead organs to become inflamed.

AFP

MEDIC: Lee Cook-jong said he had never seen anything like the worm before

FORBIDDEN photos show the true North Korean army

While tourists are free to visit the secretive state as part of strictly controlled tour groups, they are told to never take photos of soldiers by their handlers. These images taken by photographer Eric Lafforgue show the truth behind North Korean military service: a life of hard physical labour with the perks of visits to the nation's capital

1 / 24

ERIC LAFFORGUE/EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDI

Many soldiers are used as a labor force to compensate for the ineffective North Korean economy, so the army is not only about military organization.

Choi Min-Ho, a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine who specialises in parasites, said: "Although we do not have solid figures showing health conditions of North Korea, medical experts assume that parasite infection problems and serious health issues have been prevalent in the country."

The soldier's condition was "not surprising at all considering the north's hygiene and parasite problems," he said.

Parasitic worms were also once common in South Korea 40 to 50 years ago, Lee noted during his briefing, but have all but disappeared as economic conditions greatly improved.

Other doctors have also described removing various types of worms and parasites from North Korean defectors.

Their continued prevalence north of the heavily fortified border that divides the two Koreas could be in part tied to the use of human excrement, often called "night soil."

GETTY

ANGER: Kim will be furious that the soldier managed to escape

PA

READY: South Korean soldiers rescued the under-fire soldier

North Korea INVADES southern neighbour in stunning mock attack

The North Korean People's Army takes part in a target-striking contest commanded by Kim Jong Un.

1 / 23

REUTERS

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides a target-striking contest of the special operation forces of the Korean People's Army to occupy islands